Friday, 19 September 2008

Luxasia Warehouse Sale

I was excited to read on Cozycot about a Luxasia warehouse sale starting today at SAFRA Toa Payoh, just 20 minutes from my new flat so of course I had to make a trip down first thing in the morning! In previous years when I was living in Tokyo, I could only watch from afar as cotters posted their amazing hauls from Luxasia sales in Singapore. Luxasia distributes brands like Stila, Ipsa, Givenchy, Guerlain as well as many prestige fragrance brands such as Annick Goutal so I was looking forward to scoring some deals at the sale where discounts were up to 70%.

Here's a pic of my haul (total damage: $213, which wasn't too bad since I had gone with a budget of $400 in mind)

I arrived a few minutes before 11am with my mom in tow and the sale was already on-going with no queue at the entrance. The staff gave two white plastic bags to each customer, one to put your handbag in (which is then sealed with a plastic strap) and another for you to put items that you want to purchase. I was disappointed to discover that there were a few makeup brands such as Guerlain, YSL, Stila, Ipsa, By Terry.

Ipsa had some liquid and cream foundations, single eyeshadows, Aurora Charm palette from last Christmas. I picked up a makeup set with an Optimum Balance VIII4 e/s quad, Optimum Balance Lip Palette VII1 and a white pouch for $48. The pouch is made of a very soft, almost buttery leather-like material.

Stila had several palettes like the round trios from last Christmas, couple of Front Cover Look palettes, Belle of the Ball palette and various makeup sets, single e/s etc but I already have a ton of Stila which I've been neglecting recently so I skipped it all. Skincare brands available were Carita, Decleor, Phytomer, Guerlain. My mom got a 1-litre Phytomer HydraContinule Comforting Toning Lotion for the amazing price of $10!

The bulk of the warehouse sale was fragrances, most of which were going for 50-70% off the original retail price. The brands available include Sarah Jessica Parker (Lovely Liquid Satin and Lovely Shimmer, a 3-piece Covet set was going for only $40), J Lo (various versions of Glow, with a Glow shower gel going for only $10), Britney Spears, Mariah Carey, Burberry, Annick Goutal (around $35 each, which seemed like a great deal but none appealed to me), Roxy, Vera Wang, March Jacobs (Ivy & Violet Splashes were $60 each; also saw Blush but no Daisy), Guerlain, Calvin Klein, Stella McCartney (only the 7.5ml EDP), Acqua di Parma, Bulgari, Ferragamo, Paul Smith, Thierry Mugler (lots of Angel), and more.

I gave myself a headache from sniffing way too many fragrances but there were just so many brands available that it was kind of overwhelming. In the end, I got a Vera Wang EDP 50ml with Body Lotion 100ml set ($60, usual price is $132), Vera Wang Princess set with EDT 50ml, satiny body lotion 75ml, foamy body polish 75ml, roller ball edt 3ml in a cute plastic case ($50) and Guerlain Aqua Allegoria Angelique-Lilas 125ml ($45).

It wasn't horribly crowded as the sale is in a large spacious hall and there was enough space to browse leisurely, although the makeup brands do tend to have many women gathering in front to try out stuff. The products were displayed neatly with testers for almost everything. If you're a POSB Everyday cardholder, you can get a Britney Spears Believe 30ml with purchase of $200. They had another GWP for Safra members but I can't remember what. I did have to wait quite awhile when queueing up to pay at the cashier but the Luxasia staff are very nice and helpful. For example, there was no tester of the Guerlain Angelique Lilas perfume but the SA opened up a new box for me to try, which I really appreciated.

All in all, this is probably worth going only if you like fragrances. The sale is on from 11am to 8pm today until Sunday at the SAFRA multi-purpose hall in Toa Payoh (about 15 min walk from the MRT). If you bought anything there, do let me know in the comments! :-)

11 comments:

YZ
said...

Wow, looks like a nice haul! :)Btw don't they have cosmetics warehouse sales in Japan, I mean, with such a profitable beauty industry and all? (Or is it because the industry is so highly profitable that there are no leftover stocks to sell at warehouse sales, LOL!)Then again, I read somewhere that Japanese ladies do not like to buy second-hand items, is that true?

It's not really true that Japanese ladies don't like to buy second-hand items as there's been an explosion of vintage clothing shops in Tokyo over the past couple of years. There are also many shops that sell second hand branded handbangs like Louis Vuitton. So I think people are open to second-hand goods as long as the condition is good.

I haven't heard of cosmetic warehouse sales in Japan. The closest is the stores at the factory outlets like Gotemba Premium Outlets, where you can get fragrances, skincare and makeup at about 30% off the normal retail price. You can also find heavily discounted fragrances at drugstores like Ainz Tulpe in Harajuku which is a good place to score fragrances like the Ferragamo Incanto series, Elizabeth Arden Green Tea, J Lo Glow etc for very cheap (like around 1500-2500yen).

yes, i am living at toa payoh.Maybe we can bump to each other one day ha ha.What did you get on the 2nd day?My damage is greater on saturday -30ml lanvin eclat, 1 set annick goutal, kenneth cole 50ml for my bro, kenneth cole aft shave, and annick goutal aft shave.

I decided not to get princess and was contemplating on Marc Jacobs instead. But decided to keep it for next year purchase.Uh, and I threw back Burberry Brit also.